Research Paper on Social Change: A Collaborative Effort Through Action Research

Introduction

From a Walden perspective, social change refers to the process that is deliberately initiated through the application of strategies and ideas to bring about dignity, development, and promote the worth of the communities, individuals, organizations, societies, and institutions. Social change in society is a collaborative effort that occurs through action research projects that promote sustainable change in society (Louis & Montiel, 2018). Research is an effective avenue to facilitate social change by creating motivated and informed practitioners who can engage in social change initiatives by applying skills from education institutions such as Walden University. Education institutions such as Walden are instrumental in facilitating social change through their capacities, networks, curricula and expertise that help cultivate learners with skills that can practically be used to initiate sustainable change within their communities, organizations, and societies (Salter, Barkley, Benoliel Ph.D., & Dawidowicz, 2017). Education institutions are instrumental in offering educational curricula that are relevant and experiences that develop knowledge and skills for the learners to become agents of social change upon completing their studies. Social change requires collective behavioral and social movements that create a shift in the behavior and cultural values and norms within a society (Patterson, 2018). Social change is desired to improve the connectivity of people in their societies and can be used to facilitate greater human satisfaction.

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Social change is a systematic avenue that require a long term investment in research to understand human behavior and values from which adjustments can be made through the social institutions, relations, and behavior resulting to social evolution in which the society drops negative social values and practices and embraces more transformative values and behavior (Stephan, Patterson, Kelly, & Mair, 2016). Social change takes time, and it is mediated by research and community education. Social change strategies can be improved through research, which can enhance the overall outcomes of the desired change. Achieving effective change requires a deep understanding of the elements of change such as the agents, targeted change, the interaction between the agent and the targeted change and the overall support that can be derived from the public to facilitate change (Steinmetz & Gray, 2018). Research has shown that when agents of change maintain a good relationship with the change target can significantly facilitate the desired change. Research plays a significant role in identifying strategies and best practices that work and that do not work, which is crucial in facilitating sustainable change within an organization set up. Social change can significantly benefit from qualitative research because it involves the assessment of the individual experiences which facilitate the establishment of the best practices in undertaking social change.

Knowledge Targets in Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is instrumental in any social change activities because it facilitates a more significant understanding of the targeted change and the agents to create change (Aspers & Corte, 2019). Taking this course will be instrumental in learning the tenets of ethnography and case study qualitative research avenues that can be used to facilitate and promote sustainable social change. The ethnography qualitative research can be used to understand the needs of the social change targets through interactions with the target participants in change by directly engaging with the target participants in their own environment. This qualitative research avenue can be instrumental in social change because it involves the researcher being immersed in the target culture instead of relying on secondary experiences and research through interviews (Teherani, Martimianakis, Stenfors-Hayes, Wadhwa, & Varpio, 2015). Therefore, the ethnography qualitative research can be applied in social change to alleviate bias and ensure that the information used is both reliable. In terms of case studies, the application of strategies that have worked in other scenarios can save time in social change processes and activities by borrowing the experiences of other people who have tried initiating similar changes in their target communities (Brown & Baltes, 2017). The case studies ensure high effectivity in social change initiatives by informing the change strategies and reduces the need for costly trial and errors which are time consuming and inefficient. Through this course at Walden University, gaining qualitative knowledge in ethnography and case studies will be instrumental in all the future social change initiatives.

Choosing a Qualitative Research Approach

Qualitative research in facilitating social change is the best method due to its experience orientation, which facilitates the ability to review other people trials as well as the application of case studies. Social change involves cultural values and human behavior that can only be understood from a qualitative standpoint using the narrative, ethnographic, or case study qualitative research (Hammarberg, Kirkman, & de Lacey, 2016). Qualitative research is about direct observation, which helps to acquire more comprehensive and complete data through open-ended questions that can enrich the process and perspectives of social change. Qualitative research operates in a fluid manner because it is based on observations and experiences which allows the researcher the freedom to seek further information on interesting areas and where there are situation-specific insights (Rahman, 2017). Therefore, in a social change phenomena, the use of qualitative research can help a researcher to best understand the pertinent issues between the agent and the change strategies. The case studies help in social change to implement methods that have been proven effective from other people experiences, which saves time and assures desired results.

References

Aspers, P., & Corte, U. (2019). What is Qualitative in Qualitative Research. Qualitative sociology, 42(2), 139-160. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11133-019-9413-7

Brown, M. S., & Baltes, B. (2017). The relationship between social change involvement and education. Journal of Social Change, 9(1), 13. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/jsc/vol9/iss1/13/

Hammarberg, K., Kirkman, M., & de Lacey, S. (2016). Qualitative research methods: when to use them and how to judge them. Human reproduction, 31(3), 498-501. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article-abstract/31/3/498/2384737

Louis, W. R., & Montiel, C. J. (2018). Social movements and social transformation: Steps towards understanding the challenges and breakthroughs of social change. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 24(1), 3. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pac/24/1/3/

Patterson, T. C. (2018). Social Change Theories in Motion: Explaining the Past, Understanding the Present, Envisioning the Future. Routledge.

Rahman, M. S. (2017). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches and Methods in Language" Testing and Assessment" Research: A Literature Review. Journal of Education and Learning, 6(1), 102-112. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1120221

Salter, D. W., Barkley, W., Benoliel PhD, B., Dawidowicz, P., Englesberg, P., Flohr, J. W., ... & Jones, M. (2017). 2017 Walden University Research Symposium. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/current/1/

Steinmetz, S. E., & Gray, M. J. (2018). Utilizing Tenets of Social Cognitive Theory to Facilitate Stay-Leave Decision Making in Victims of Partner Abuse. Partner Abuse, 9(4), 439-454. Retrieved from https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgrpa/9/4/439

Stephan, U., Patterson, M., Kelly, C., & Mair, J. (2016). Organizations driving positive social change: A review and an integrative framework of change processes. Journal of Management, 42(5), 1250-1281. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0149206316633268

Teherani, A., Martimianakis, T., Stenfors-Hayes, T., Wadhwa, A., & Varpio, L. (2015). Choosing a qualitative research approach. Journal of graduate medical education, 7(4), 669-670. Retrieved from http://www.jgme.org/doi/abs/10.4300/JGME-D-15-00414.1